I Reduced My Screen Time from 5.5 Hours to 40 Minutes; How You Can Too
Life. What a beautiful gift God has blessed us with. Well, all these philosophical talks sound really appealing at the moment. But in the end, how do we spend our lives?
Ahha, let me answer.
We do two things mainly:
- Use social media (while wishing to reduce our screen time)
- Complain about ‘not having an exciting life’ or perhaps ‘cry over a boring one.’
It’s a trap. A dangerous one. And I have talked a lot about ‘how social media and mobile phones, in general, are destroying our society and damaging our brains.’ Yet, if I had to sum it up, I will say:
You know social media or excessive screen time is bad for you — you have the desire to give up this bad habit of checking your phone again and again — yet you are not able to just turn off your phone — in fact, one reel after another, one video after another, one episode after another is now your core habit — as you watch another TikTok, you simultaneously promise yourself ‘just this last one or just 5 minutes more’ — yet your brain doesn’t listen to you and you keep scrolling as if it’s your full-time job.
The question here is — If you are the owner of your brain then why does your brain not take orders from you?
Why are you not able to control your brain?
Because you are caged. You are trapped in the cage of the latest technology that is designed after careful analysis of basic human nature — so that they can arrest your attention until you are mentally handicapped.
If that doesn’t sound dangerous to you, you are up for big trouble. Because let me say it again — you are no longer in control of your brain.
And if someone else is controlling your brain then they can MAKE YOU do anything they like, be it shopping for that bag that was out of your budget or watching another episode of a popular series when you were supposed to do some real work.
The only way out of this trap is to — become more indulged in real life and reduce your screen time to as little as possible.
I have done it myself. My screen time was more than 5 hours. More than 5 hours. That is alarming. I was shocked to see it. Because in my view, I never used social media that much.
But that’s the catch. You don’t think you use it much but in reality, you do. You are not even aware of your problem.
When I saw my screen time was 5 hours, I almost got a mini heart attack. That entire day, I was just thinking — what the hell do I see in these 5 hours?
But I also knew that self-blaming would just make me feel bad and then I will social media to numb that feeling. So, I took these steps to reduce my screen time.
And tada! I went from 5.5 hours to 30 minutes.
Shall we start?
1. Get Back to Reality:
Tell me one thing.
If you were living in your dream city with people you love surrounded by cute cafes and a nice place to go hiking or swimming along with having a job that you absolutely love, would you still be using social media?
No, you wouldn’t. Or at least not as much as you do now.
What I want to tell you is — the reason you are so viciously trapped in social media is, you are not happy with your real life.
I know that’s a big statement to make. But I am saying it after a careful analysis of my own behavior and talking to 10 more people who had/have a habit of using excessive social media.
This year, early in February I was working on my first book, for the first time I felt more excited about the future than worried. I was so overjoyed with my book idea that I was constantly working on it — one page after another. I was barely taking breaks.
Because I WAS ENJOYING MY WORK.
And in between all this, I forgot if I ever had a mobile or social media account.
But this past few months, I was mostly free. I didn’t have much work or rather I was able to do all my work very fast which gave me a lot of free time.
Now, I live in a very small town with no cafes or libraries or even a decent park. I don’t have any friends here either. In short, I am alone with a desire to live an exciting life.
So, what did I do?
I found that excitement on social media and in movies. Without exaggerating, I was finding my social media feed more exciting than my real life. Hence, the increased screen time.
And do you know what’s worse?
Once you start using social media or watching movies on a loop, you will find your real life even more boring because duh! You know fun is within your fingertips.
This is the trap.
You find your life boring — so you use social media/movies — and then after giving so much dopamine and fun to your brain — your real life starts to feel even more boring — so you go back to social media/Netflix because what’s wrong with watching one more video when you are sitting free?
See, I could have directly asked you to do something exciting in your real life and it might have motivated you for a while but you need to understand the root cause of your problem. So that you can it from the roots. You don’t want this problem to grow back, do you?
Now that you understand why you are going back to social media against your will — you can do something about yourself.
And what is that something?
a) Make Your Real Life Interesting:
You are missing from your real life, do you realize that?
If not then ask yourself ‘What do you do in your day-to-day life that brings you joy?’
In fact, forget about joy. How many tasks do you do in a day with complete awareness?
No wonder, why you find social media more appealing.
Though, I want you to make your REAL LIFE APPEALING.
As much as your social media feed is appealing and exciting to you, I want you to make your real life equally appealing. Do the things that bring you joy, build the habits that you always wanted, go back to an old hobby and ignite your inner child, go to a café and read there — pretend you are a main character from a movie who is being recorded, sing or dance or go for a walk or listen to your favorite music as you cook.
In short, DO SOMETHING to bring joy to your life. Do something to bring life to your life. Don’t just sit there and complain about not having an exciting life.
Ask yourself, ‘How can I make my life exciting every day?’
2. Learn NEW Skills:
What is that one thing you always wanted to learn but never had the time for?
I can bet there is at least one thing that is dying a slow death in your heart. We all have that one skill we always wanted to learn but somehow we never had enough time for it.
For example; Although, there are a bunch of skills I want to learn but one that I always think about is cooking. I always imagined myself cooking in my sweet little apartment humming my favorite song as the candles are burning and the fresh smell is filling my lungs.
But somehow, I never had the time for it. I always gave myself enough excuses. But one thing was common. Just after giving myself an excuse for why I don’t have to learn cooking, I used to find myself scrolling and wasting time. What a hypocrite.
Not anymore though. I started learning cooking this month and so far — I have made 4 dishes. 3 were good and one was really bad.
What Can You Do?
It’s obvious that I am going to recommend you to learn a new skill — one that you always wanted to.
However, what if you don’t have time?
Well, since you clicked on this article, it’s evident that you also have a bad habit of wasting your time on social media. So, why don’t you invest that time to learn something new and exciting?
The only thing you need to do is — ANALYSE.
Analyze when you use social media the most and then sit down to learn that one skill during that time.
For example; I used to use social media the most in the evening after 5. That’s when I am mostly free so my escape was social media. Now, I try to make a new dish in the evening so that I am busy learning a new skill while using the same time I was wasting.
It might be difficult for you to arrange time in your schedule but if you can find when you waste time the most, you can use that to your advantage. Be smart.
Now, it’s on you. Find out by analyzing when you waste time on social media the most and then learn a new skill using the same time.
This way, you will control your urge, and learn a new skill. Two in one.
Conclusion:
I hope you can learn to live more in your real life rather than losing yourself in a filtered version of another’s life. Because life is beautiful. And we can enjoy it for as long as we are here. You might think, ‘I am just 25 or 30 or 22 so I have a long time to live.’ But do you know when is your expiry date due?
Life is short. And we don’t know how much time we have. Maybe you have 50 more years to live or maybe just 5. While you cannot know the length of your life in advance, you can definitely make your life beautiful and exciting so much so that even death falls in love with the way you live and grant you a few more years.
In short, don’t live life like death.
Peace.
If you like my article, you will love my book — The Art of Being Alone.